And There Goes Prachuap Khiri Khan!

Mod Guesthouse, Hua Hin, Thailand
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Once on the bus it was pretty crowded and I had to double up with a Thai girl. Within minutes of taking off, the guy in front of us decided to move his air vent so that it ended up blowing straight on me. And if you remember from an earlier post from Malaysia, but also applies to Thai buses, if there is air con, it is on and freezing. Normally I would have said something, but given that I don't speak Thai, I felt it better to let it just be. Thankfully, we had to make a pit stop for gas pretty soon and the guy got off the bus, so I closed his air vent, which he never noticed.

View from Mod Guesthouse, Hua Hin, Thailand
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As we headed north the bus kept getting more and more filled up, so much so that little kiddie chairs had to be brought out for people to sit on in the aisle and the rest had to stand. We had a 20 minute stop and although a bathroom break would have been nice, there was no way I was getting off because for all I knew, it would be a free for all when you got back and I didn't feel like standing. Anyhow, I figured I would only have probably another 45 minutes before getting to my stop.

Back on the road again and around 10:30 (the trip taking longer because of the rain) quite a few people got off, easing the congestion a bit in the aisle. We had proceeded about 5 minutes before the ticket lady exclaimed something quite loudly in Thai and started pointing at me. I soon figured out that I had missed my stop. Of course, the bus wasn't going to go back, so I had to come up with something. Given how late it was already, I didn't think it would be a good idea to try and make it to Petburi that night, so I opted for Hua Hin as I knew that the other four travelers were going there. So, I paid another 50 Baht (approx $1.50) to continue on. As we approached Hua Hin, about an hour later, I soon realized that maybe this was a blessing in disguise. We had to venture off the main highway about 3-4 km to get into the town whereas the stop for Prachuap Khiri Khan was on the main highway. So, I think that my missing my stop was actually a blessing in disguise, because who knows how I would have made my way into town that late at night.

Roof of the Bus to Petburi, Thailand
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The bus dropped us off on the main street and a taxi was waiting for travelers. I asked the other 4 if they knew where they were staying and they didn't and were going to rely on a recommendation from the taxi driver. He mentioned a name of a place that was in my LP so I decided it was just easier to go with them then to try and find something on my own at now midnight, especially because the town looked quite asleep. We were taken to the Mod Hotel that was anything but Mod.

My room was pretty dismal, but I was tired and had planned on leaving pretty early the next morning. Now, remember my cockroach from Ko Tao? Well, I encountered one in my room at Hua Hin. What I don't know is, if the cockroach from Ko Tao hitched a ride in my backpack, or if this was a new one. I tried killing it, but to no avail and for it to climb under my mattress. There was no way I was staying in that room for the night. The guy at the front desk reluctantly changed my room that happened to be even more dismal than the first one, if that was possible <sigh>. Now almost 12:30, I managed to get my PJs and silk sack out before quickly zipping up my pack as I wasn't sure if there were anymore cockroaches lurking about my things. As tired as I was, I really couldn't sleep between my severely hard pillow and the thought of cockroaches. Every time the fan blew on me and moved my silk sack, I thought it was a bug. Finally turning off the fan, I managed to get a few hours sleep.

Up early, I decided for my own sanity that I had to check my pack. So it took me about an hour to go through single thing, shake it out and repack everything before I was completely convinced that there were no more cockroaches. Eager to get out of my horrible room, I had a few things that I wanted to do in Hua Hin. First I stopped at World Cafe as I had read that they have bagels. So, with my toasted poppy seed bagel with butter (there was no cream cheese), my hot chocolate and newspaper, I almost forgot that I was in Thailand! Second stop was to Bookazine to see if they had the Cambodia LP. I was in luck! Third stop was to the post office to ship a small box back of a few things that I didn't need and a few things I had used but didn't need anymore. My final stop was to the bus station to see when I could get to Petburi via a local bus. From what I could gather, it was either leaving in 10 minutes, every 10 minutes of every hour and a half. As the guy was trying to explain to me, a Thai woman butted in and then he proceeded to ignore me. I figured it was just best to go back and get the rest of my things and then wait. As it turns out, it was that the bus left every hour and a half.